Analysis of Lawson Delivering New Retail Analytic Capabilities

On January 17, Lawson Software announced new comparative sales analyzer capabilities
within its advanced suite of retail analytic applications. Comparative (comp)
sales functionality, available in Lawson release 7.3.2 scheduled for the Fall
of 2000, allegedly enables retailers to easily maintain, analyze and report
on comparative sales and other key business metrics. Lawson made the announcement
at the National Retail Federation Conference in New York.

According
to Lawson, its comp sales analysis feature leverages integrated calendar functionality
and the company's Self-Evident Applications (SEA) technology to make the same
sales/business metrics reporting process faster and easier. The comparative
analyzer eliminates the need for time-consuming spreadsheet calculations and
provides more accurate information via an easily maintained setup facility that
reports against the latest financial information available. The built-in flexibility
of the product enables retail executives to complete "what if" analysis, such
as adjusting the comparative data pool to recognize unusual scenarios like weather,
regional anomalies, and operational characteristics such as store format and
location, open hours, and channel.

"Lawson's comp metrics analyzer is another example of how Lawson continues to
deliver technology solutions that meet the specific needs of retailers," said
Robert Toatley, general manager, Retail Business Unit, Lawson Software. "Leveraging
better, faster information for decision-making throughout the enterprise provides
retailers with a competitive advantage. e-Commerce is prompting unprecedented
changes in business models and strategies. Lawson is responding with analytic
capabilities that enable retailers to measure business performance over key
time periods, including daily, weekly and period-to-date. Our comp analysis
solution includes options for adjusting parameters of the comparative data pool
to accommodate user-defined events such as store openings and remodels."

Market
Impact

Lawson has continually invested significant R&D dollars in order to deliver
innovative products, often in advance of much larger competitors. The latest
announcement of the incorporation of vertically focused business intelligence
capabilities speaks for it. Furthermore, Lawson has demonstrated very tight
industry focus and is regarded as one of the Top 3 ERP systems for Healthcare,
Retail, and Professional Industries. Being privately held and independent of
Wall Street pressures has allowed the company to direct its investments for
development of its desired core competencies.

While
we believe that Lawson's product strategy against the largest ERP vendors is
on track, one should not discount fierce competition from its larger competitors,
like SAP, Oracle, PeopleSoft, and J.D. Edwards. These vendors, while possibly
inferior regarding retail industry focus, will either try to influence customers
purchase decisions by offering their more holistic product portfolios (including
CRM modules, where Lawson is currently late-to-market) or instilling FUD (fear,
uncertainty, doubt) in more conservative CFOs who may cast a wary eye on Lawson's
immunity from financial statement disclosure.

User
Recommendations

We generally recommend including Lawson in a long list of an enterprise application
selection to mid-market and low end tier 1 companies (with $100M-$2B in revenue),
based on a very deep understanding of customers' needs within the following
industries: Financial Services; Healthcare; Professional Services; Public Sector;
Retail; Wholesale Distribution; and Publishing. Organizations seeking a Web-based
solution and out-of-box functionality with little or no re-engineering effort
may wish to evaluate Lawson. As for the new added functionality in the retail
industry, users are advised to ask for firm assurances on the availability timeframe
and more detailed scope of functionality.